Tenant Requesting Help to Light a Pilot Light??

Question

We have a newer tenant in a SFH who, through a series of legitimate issues that were not her fault, got into the habit of contacting us to help her with every. single. thing. The most recent is that she can't get the water to heat up. I asked if she checked the pilot light and she said she looked but can't figure out where it would even be. Now, I don't want her to burn down the house messing with something that is beyond her abilities, but to get someone out there to light a pilot light and then eating the cost seems a little beyond being a good landlord to me. I would like to know your thoughts.... we are going to get someone out there, but can I pass this cost to the tenant?

And is there a way to nicely wean her off of contacting us at least twice a week? The first 10 issues or so were really not her fault, so I feel like we do kind of owe her our patience but our tenants tend to stay a long time and so I would like to cut this behavior off sooner rather than later. In her application she did say she and her boyfriend are good at making small repairs....

And is there a way to nicely wean her off of contacting us at least twice a week?  The first 10 issues or so were really not her fault, so I feel like we do kind of owe her our patience but our tenants tend to stay a long time and so I would like to cut this behavior off sooner rather than later. In her application she did say she and her boyfriend are good at making small repairs....

Matt P. · Answer

@Tiffany Roberts What's your lease say? Did you show her how to light it when you moved her in? I always show my Tennant's basic stuff like water shut offs and what not. If your lease doesn't cover it and you didn't show her how to work it I think it's on you. The real problem is you moved someone in when there were 10 issues for them to call you about lol. Good luck.

Christopher Brainard · Answer

Account Closed

Welcome to self managing your properties :)

Most tenants are tenants for a reason and the vast majority of them are not handy nor do they have any experience with maintenance issues associated with a house. Your best bet is to try to educate them when you're there and hopefully they won't call you for the same minor issue twice. If it continues to be an issue, I would simply not renew their lease at the end.

-Christopher

Account Closed · Answer

My philosophy is that tenants rent and prefer not to own a property for many reasons i.e. they cannot, or do not want to take care of maintenance issues. A major part of owning rental properties is providing service. Of course, we get tire, but that is our job.I always prefer to light and clean furnaces and water heaters because it gives the opportunity to make sure everything is safe and you get the inspect the rental unit. It also helps to build a good relationship with your tenant.Unfortunately, and I hate to say this, but I've been renting and working with rental units since 1965 and my father told me back then the difference between renting to single men or single women and this is 100% true. When you rent to single men they move in and you hardly hear from them. When you rent to single women they complain about everything that is not imaginable i.e. they want us to oil door hinges. We just rented to one woman and she went to Home Depot, purchased a level and complained that the bathroom floor was not level. Not true!. Then she complained that she wanted reflectors on a flower pot in the driveway because she misses the apartment building when going home. It is a huge 28-unit building and the first one on the block next to a CVS drug store.Accommodate your tenants wishes and love them for what (who) they are. This is a business and everyone loves good service without the grumbling and complaints. I would rather tenants call with for the most insignificant problems vs. not calling and ending up with major repairs that could have been prevented.

Peter Tverdov · Answer

We manage a lot of student rentals and I swear these kids know less and less each year. We deal with stuff like this at times but also hit them with some truth serum as we're helping them. We teach them to search on Youtube, DuckDuckGo, etc for answers to common problems and to "think" before contacting us, we're not Mommy and Daddy.

In the past, we have explained that they will get billed for the handyman's time to come over and make the repair if it's something silly like that. You'll be surprised how fast the tenant stops contacting you with outrageous requests when they know it will either cost them $20 an hour, or they can search for the solution online for 10 minutes. I suggest you do that.

Account Closed · Answer

Account Closed,

Thanks all for your sound advice.  I definitely learned a lot with this rental-- and in the future will give a more hands on guide to the house and it would be good to get inside and make sure everything is working well. But ugggghhhh.... so many requests.

and before you think we just threw some people in a dump we didn't! We did some renovations, painted, fixed items and it was looking cute and was ready to rent but things came up after in a series of unfortunate events-- like the call I got from the tenant about animals in the ceiling... so I hired a trapper I to get rid of the critters... and the call a month later about a gross smell coming from the back of the house... which turns out was a rotting squirrel family in the ceiling-- guess the trapper didn't quite get the critters out before plugging the hole where they were getting in.  Or the leaking roof, or the drywall guys who came left junk in the backyard...and I could go on!  If this was our first rental I would seriously consider if this is the direction I want to go with my investments!  Luckily it isn't and I know things can be a lot easier.

So thanks for keeping my head on straight about the pilot light, it really is a good thing to have a reason to get in and make sure things are all good in the house.

Tenant Requesting Help to Light a Pilot Light??

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